


Broken Bones, Mended Hearts

by ReptileRuler



Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [13]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Foster Care, GIR is a dog, Human AU, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Red being sleep-deprived, Roommates, Swearing, Zim Being an Idiot (Invader Zim), implied zade, implied zagf, injuries, the good thing about human au is that red can say the eff word, the inherent awkwardness of videocalls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29397645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReptileRuler/pseuds/ReptileRuler
Summary: Zim had been in his new place for three days, and already gotten into shit.“Why were you fighting a guy in a staircase?!”Febuwhump 2021ch. 1: DAY 13: hiding injurych. 2: DAY 16: broken bones
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Red/Zim, The Almighty Tallest/Zim
Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137614
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	1. Skyping w the bfs

**Author's Note:**

> IDK man. After staring at this prompt for a few days, I closed my eyes and reached into an imaginary top hat full of popular au tropes. I pulled out a piece of paper and it said 'college au' and I went with it.
> 
> Zim, Purple and Red were reluctant roommates, who eventually warmed up to each other and got together. Then Zim moved to go to another college for [reason, maybe to continue education/do a master's?].

“You calling Zim?”

“M-hm.”’

“I wanna say hi too!”

Red didn’t react to his roommate kneeling down by the couch armrest. He _ could  _ get up and let Purple sit beside him, but he refused to move unless he was literally forced to.

The three dots on his tablet screen danced as it tried to contact Zim. For a second he wondered if the dumbass wasn’t even going to answer, but then the screen flickered to show just a blur of movement. The microphone crackled.

“Zim?” Red said. 

“Gimme a sec!” Zim snapped as his camera kept moving, nothing discernable enough for Red to get an idea of what was going on. He huffed, but waited patiently. Behind him he felt Purple shift into a more comfortable position. 

Something thunked and he thought he heard Zim yell something. Did he sound… in pain?

Then, finally, the camera focused on a poorly lit face and Zim stared at them with wide, brown eyes. 

“Greetings my boyfriends! What’s up?” 

“Hi, Zim”, Purple grinned, “are you almost done moving into your new place?”

“Oh? Um. yes”, Zim looked at something off screen, “just a few boxes remain. Though I have to wait now that I- nevermind. I asked about you first!”

Red frowned.

“We’re good”, he said, “it’s boring without you here though.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

“And messy!” Purple piped in. Out of the three of them, Zim was the one the most inclined to actually keep the apartment clean. That… probably said something about them.

“You two better keep the kitchen clean”, Zim said, “or you will face my wrath. Whenever I come visit.”

“Are you on the floor?” Red asked. He could see the part of the ceiling, and the corner of the room and barren, white walls behind him. The angle really made it feel like he was too low to be in a chair.

“Yes… but don’t worry about that!” Zim hurried to say. 

“Do you not have furniture yet?”

“Yes! I do. I have a purple couch. I just fell off it, is all.”

“Lol, why?” Purple huffed.

“You called and my phone was too far away. Stop being on my case!”

Maybe Red secretly was an anxious person. Maybe he just knew when Zim was avoiding questions, and which ticks he had when he was nervous or in pain. Either way, he felt his mouth turn downward and concern start to grow, like a cold pit in his stomach. 

“Did something happen, Zim?” he asked. 

“Nope!” Zim exclaimed before Red had even finished talking, “Everything is fine! Everything is perfect! Nothing happened!”

“Zim!”

Zim tightened his jaw and looked away. The device he’d been holding tilted upward so that the only visible part of him was his forehead and hair. In the thumbnail that showed Red’s own camera, he saw that Purple had also started looking concerned. 

“What… Should we come over?” Purple said, softly.

“I’m in a different state”, Zim reminded them. He sighed, “I broke my ankle. It’s nothing, really, so-”

“You did what?!” Red sat up. 

It had been three days! Three days alone, and he was already getting hurt and shit!

Purple moved to sit beside him on the couch, and he let him. He was too preoccupied with wrapping his head around the fact that Zim couldn’t stay unharmed for less than a week. A week!

“I just fell down a staircase while fighting a guy! Really-”

_ “What??” _

“Not to worry! I emerged victorious, so-”

“Why were you fighting a guy in a staircase?!”

Zim pouted.

“We were in disagreement.”

“So you… fought?”

“He punched me first, if that means anything.”

“Oh. Okay”. Purple relaxed a little, “and you won?”

“Indeed”, Zim smiled, looking smug as though winning a fist-fight was a good thing. Even though he literally broke his ankle in the process. 

Red glared. It wasn’t very effective through the tablet camera, with the reading lamp behind him making most of his face silhouetted. 

“Stop getting yourself into shit”, he said. 

Zim looked down.

“Zim!”

“We’re having a rematch. Once we’re healed”, Zim admitted, “my enemy is a classmate named Dib. His theories are all wrong and he refuses to listen, so clearly I need to win over him using different tactics.”

“…”

“Jesus Christ, Zim!”

“I will win! Don’t worry about it!”

“You’re a grown-ass fucking adult, Zim”, Red snapped, “Can you act like one for once!”

Zim didn’t answer. It occured to Red how stupid it was to have an argument via a videocall. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, and didn’t fight when Purple gently took the tablet off his hands. 

“Zim?” Purple said. A sigh and a rustle came from the other end of the call, but Red didn’t look at it to see what his long-distance boyfriend was doing. “How does your ankle feel?”

“What do you think?” Zim mumbled. 

“Can I see?”

More shuffling sounds. Red leaned over to look at the screen. Zim had changed the camera, and angled his phone to show his outstretched legs. The floor in his new place had a beige carpet and white walls. In the corner there were still unopened boxes, but the focal point was the thick bandage around Zim’s right foot. His toes poked out comically, and Red noted that he was in his tiny-moose patterned shorts. 

“Oooh. Looks painful”, Purple said.

“I am in some pain, yes”, Zim spoke casually. 

“You can’t walk, can you?” Red mumbled, concern churning in his guts again. “Seriously, I could find a way to come over for a bit-”

“It’s okay. Dib’s sister has agreed to walk Gir for me. And this place is pretty much just one room, I can manage just fine”, Zim’s disembodied voice said. The camera swerved, “Look at this hideous couch!”

“It’s… gaudy”, Red said.

“I like the color”, Purple said, “We should have a bright purple couch too!”

“No”, Red and Zim said at the same time, and then they were all laughing. 

There were still reasons to worry. They’d all just started this long-distance thing. Zim was an idiot who already got into fights with his classmates. Neither Red nor Purple had done the dishes in three days, but…

But they would figure all this out in time. 


	2. Chapter 2

The doorbell rang with a shrillness that grated on Red’s nerves, and seconds later he heard a dog’s fervent yapping and someone yelling.

The rattle of the lock being turned, and then the door opened. A lady with purple hair and a squint to her eyes greeted him.

“Who’re you?” she asked. 

“Zim’s boyfriend. Can I come in?” he said, all the while Gir was trying to climb him.

“Red?!”

Zim was on his couch, visible behind the girl’s back. He had his injured foot on one armrest and was staring with wide eyes and a slack jaw.

“Why are you here? What- How’d you get here so fast?!”

Red bent down to greet the little dog, unwilling to admit how little he’d slept in favor of driving. 

“I have to make sure you’re alright, don’t I?” he said instead.

“Um, should I leave?” the girl asked.

“Oh, yeah, maybe”, Zim said, not taking his eyes off Red, “keep the extra key though. I’ll call you later.”

“‘Kay. Seeya.”

“Bye, Gaz!”

Gaz left as Red entered the humble apartment that was Zim’s new home. He took Gir in his arms while also trying his best to not get one thousand dog-kisses all over his face.

The apartment was quiet for a minute. Now that he could experience it in person, he realized what Zim meant when he said that it was just one room. A studio apartment, with the hallway merging into a tiny kitchenette, a bed behind the couch, and a TV on a short table in front of the couch. One could technically reach everything from the couch. Well, Red could. Zim was probably too short.

Red turned back to Zim, who still stared at him. Was that a blush on his face, though? It must be, painted cutely onto his bewildered expression. 

“I didn’t like thinking about you being hurt in a new place before you even got to make any friends”, he explained, “though you seem to have one already, I guess.” The girl must have been that Dib-person’s sister - he remembered that she’d agreed to take care of Gir. 

“But-”

Zim seemed to be struggling with something. He made a few non-committal hand gestures, looking around frantically. That was normal for him, so Red just set down Gir and treated himself to some tap water from Zim’s kitchenette as he waited. It tasted awful. 

“You… you didn’t have to come all this way”, Zim finally settled on, with a lost expression on his face.

“It’s really no big deal. Scoot, I want to sit down”, Red said and made his way over to the awful purple couch. 

After some maneuvering, and Zim cursing his broken ankle several times, Red was on the couch with an armful of boyfriend and a dog that had managed to squeeze itself into what little free space remained on the couch. The bandaged foot, the cause of all this, jutted out awkwardly to rest on the coffee table in front of the couch. 

“I didn’t think you’d come for me”, Zim said, his tone low. His mouth was partially pressed against Red’s chest, and the words came out muffled. Maybe they weren’t meant to be heard at all.

“I wanted to”, Red said simply. Now that everything had calmed down, the fatigue of having driven along the highways at illegal speeds all night weighed on him. He hadn’t taken many breaks, mind preoccupied with calculating at what hour he’d arrive if he kept driving. 

“No one’s ever-” Zim cut himself off and buried his face fully in Red’s chest. Red’s arms tightened around him. 

They stayed like that. Barely a week apart, and already they’d missed each other so much. It was the kind of longing you didn’t realize you had until you’ve got your significant other in your arms again, sharing warmth and heartbeat and germs. Zim’s steady breath created a hot spot on Red’s torso, while Red smelled the strawberry-scented shampoo that Zim used for his short hair. 

“When I was seven, I broke my leg”, Zim muttered into Red’s shirt. Red heard him through a cloudy haze, his mind numb. 

“Mm.”

“My foster parents were so mad. Didn’t let me see anyone for months, but it was okay. I built a bunch of robots. And I made an earthworm army... who rules the underground to this day.”

“Mm.”

“And when I was twelve I crashed my bike and broke five ribs. I lived with someone else, then. I didn’t get a new bike, and she made me do house chores until I had repaid her for what she’d paid for the bike. It hurts a lot to scrub floors with five broken ribs, Red.”

“Mm.”

“Then, just one year later, this kid in class pushed me off the climby-thingy at the schoolyard and I totally ruined my wrist. Needed surgery and stuff, which was pretty cool, but the lady I lived with was so angry, because I couldn’t help her as much.”

Red used approximately all of his strength to open a single eyelid halfway.

“Can’t believe you’re still alive”, he mumbled.

“Me neither. I’m so good at being alive that I even surprise myself! Anyway, when I turned sixteen I had this bet with a girl, and I ended up going down a slope in a sled with wheels, and it crashed and-”

Zim’s stories of all his awful injuries continued. While the words didn’t quite register to Red, he still felt his mood darken for… some reason. There was a constant in there that grated on him. How every broken bone, scraped knee, sprained ankle, ended up with a disappointed or angry caretaker. 

He would very much like to meet every single one of them. Tell them to fuck off, maybe put them into a rocket and launch them into the sun… Watch as their flesh seared and burned before they exploded into little particles, to drift forever in the endless abyss of space… 

“Are you falling asleep??” Zim said then and moved. Red forced himself to hum. “Hey. Hey, don’t! You’re here to take care of  _ me _ , right?”

“I’ll do that”, Red slurred out, “in a sec…”

“I want a glass of water. Red. My ankle is broken and I can’t reach the tap. Red. Red. Hey, Red. My boyfriend. My boyyyyfriend. Red.”

He opened one eye to squint down at Zim, who wore the biggest, most shit-eating grin imaginable.

“I’m curious to see how long you can keep that up”, he muttered.

“Are you really? Because I can-”

“No.”

With a sigh he wiggled out from underneath Zim, who dared to make indignant noises at him for moving. 

“Anything else you need?”

“Hm, let’s see…”

Red poured them both more tap water as Zim hummed playfully. His gaze caught a flyer to a nearby pizza place, and he remembered that he’d only eaten travel snacks for the last 24 hours at least.

“How about pizza?” he said. 

Zim agreed. They ended up watching a movie while eating pizza in front of the TV, which was how Zim apparently was going to live from now on, because he wouldn’t fit a proper kitchen table anywhere in his little apartment. 

Soon enough, they were both full and sleepy, watching the end credits roll while snuggled up on the couch. 

Zim was tracing patterns into Red’s forearm as Red dozed. He thought he heard Zim say something about how screwed up his sleeping schedule was going to be. Whatever.

He could be sleep deprived and still take care of Zim. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: Don't drive when you're sleepy!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 2 will be for day 16: broken bones :>


End file.
